Setlist:
So Far Gone by Thousand Foot Krutch
Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel
"I have an idea, let's use your little pet," Roman said after another puff on his cigar. "Let's have her take the fall."
"No."
"Aww too attached to old Fluffy to put her down? You may want to tighten that collar though; she got out without a second thought tonight. Who knows she might meet a tomcat outside and then you'd be-."
Adam slammed Roman's hand to the table with a knife dangerously close to his fingers. "Enough," he growled again.
"Fine, but the question remains."
The door opened and Blake tried to just run through but Adam stopped her.
"You do not leave again until Friday, no one sees you outside of school before then. Do you understand?" he asked.
Blake just nodded.
"Do you understand?" Adam asked again, harsher this time.
"Yes Adam, I understand."
"You're dismissed."
Blake nodded and ran through again. Adam looked back at his map of the city.
"Maybe you do have that leash on tight enough," Roman said again.
"Enough, we'll continue this next week."
"Well then hopefully you'll grow a pair and actually see that setting her up is-."
Adam slammed Roman against the wall by his throat and held him there.
"You're getting to attached Adam, you know that right?"
"You're interfering with my business," he said.
"Isn't that why you hired me?"
"And I'm dangerously close to rescinding our deal."
"Fine, then I'd like to hear the ideas you come up with on your own, and when you do then you can tell me."
XXX
"I have some ideas," Scarlet said. He'd just sat at their usual table in the cafeteria and pulled out his binder.
"You actually wrote last night?" Neptune asked.
"Yep, I was up till two last night writing. Now whether they're any good or not I'll leave that up to you."
"Well let me have a look," Neptune said. His eyes flashed up towards the door and he dropped the binder in his mad dash up from the table.
"What the?"
Neptune jogged up to Weiss as she sat down next to Blake. "Hey there," Neptune called out. Weiss and Blake looked up just as Neptune arrived.
"Hey Neptune, are you looking for Sun?" Blake asked.
"Actually I wanted to talk to 'Out of your league' first, but if he's coming I can wait."
"What?" Weiss asked.
"Well that's what you said your name was right?" Neptune asked. Weiss' confused look turned to a glare.
"Funny," she deadpanned.
"Look, I wanted to apologize if I came on a bit strong last night, so let's just start over okay? My name's Neptune Vasillias, what's yours?" he asked.
Weiss thought for a moment before standing up to shake his hand. "Weiss Schnee."
"Wow," Neptune's smile grew bigger.
"What?" she asked.
"That's a cool name," Neptune said.
Weiss blinked for a few moments. "Do you not know that name?"
"No, that's the first time I'd heard it, it's nice though."
"Oh, I see," Weiss started to smile back.
"So do you want to hang out this weekend? Maybe go to that new coffee place downtown?"
"Subtlety isn't a strong suit of yours is it?"
"I'm the front man of a rock band, are you shocked?" he asked. She let out another laugh.
"Not this weekend unfortunately, I have prior plans, but maybe another time."
"So you're saying there's a chance?" Neptune said happily.
"I'm sorry?" Weiss asked.
"Never mind, inside joke, sorry."
"Having fun Neptune?" Sun asked with Ruby and Yang in tow.
"Depends on your definition," he responded. "Oh Ruby, Scarlet's got your stuff hold on." Neptune dashed off and returned with Scarlet and Sage, all of them taking seats with them.
"Here you are Little Red," Scarlet said handing over the stuff. "Three practice pads, two pairs of sticks and a little metronome for you. Enjoy!"
"Thanks Big Red!" Ruby said with a giggle.
"Aww how adorable," Yang sighed.
They continued to have conversations off and on even after Pyrrha and Jaune joined them. The whole table turned in silence when they heard a shriek of pain. Scarlet turned and saw Cardin pulling on Velvet's rabbit ears.
"Let go you clod!" she shouted.
"What do you know? They are real, I guess I owe you five bucks!" he said boisterously. Scarlet turned back and clutched the table tightly enough to make the table groan under the strain.
"Come on man, keep control," Sage said.
"Let go, Cardin!" she ordered.
"What's the matter, Energizer? Gotta keep going?" one of Cardin's friends asked. Scarlet grabbed the table even tighter.
"Don't let this get to you!" Sage warned.
"Or maybe she's like a playboy bunny!" Cardin shouted.
"Nope, I take it back, kick his ass," Sage said.
"With gusto."
Scarlet marched down to Cardin and came up behind him. Before Cardin's friends had a chance to warn him, Scarlet grabbed his ears and yanked as hard as he could.
"OW! What the hell?!" Cardin asked.
"What do you know, they are real," Scarlet marveled. "Hey Sage I owe you five bucks!" he shouted.
"Oh you think you're being cute, huh?" Cardin asked as he got up. Being a football player he easily outsized Scarlet.
"Bitch, I'm adorable."
Cardin just shook his head and went to punch him, Scarlet grabbed his hand and twirled around him holding his hand behind his back and forced him down to his knees. Cardin yelled out in pain just like Velvet did.
"Now why don't you apologize to Miss Velvet and I'll let you go?"
"I'll kill you, you little cunt!" Cardin yelled.
"Has it been so long since you've seen one you've forgotten what they look like?" Scarlet asked. Cardin growled out and tried to break free, but Scarlet tightened his grip and put him back down. "Now apologize."
"I'll kill you!"
"Sorry wrong answer." Scarlet moved his hands over an inch and Cardin yelped in pain again.
"Alright fine jeez! I'm sorry!" he said.
"Not quite, what's her name?"
Cardin sighed angrily. "I'm sorry, Velvet."
"One more time just for good measure."
"I'm sorry, Velvet."
Scarlet nodded and dropped Cardin who then fell to his face as he walked off. Velvet stared at the whole scene before leaving herself and Cardin fought to pick himself up.
"That was awesome!" Ruby said happily.
"And clever, that was some quick thinking," Weiss admitted.
"You stole all of that from Team Four Star!" Sage said with a laugh.
"Yeah, but he doesn't know that," Scarlet argued. "Besides I meant what I said."
"Well before we get in trouble maybe we'd better scram," Sun warned.
"Where did you learn that arm hold, that was impressive," Pyrrha said.
"From my dad, he was a police officer for a few years. He's actually why I want to go to the Police academy after I graduate."
"That's cool!" Ruby said.
"So I had a question, when's your guys' next rehearsal?" Yang asked suddenly.
"Probably next Wednesday, that's when we've always had them, why?" Neptune asked.
The bell rang as students quickly scattered to their next class.
"No reason," Yang said with a smile.
"That smile scares me a little," Sage said.
"It scares me a lot," Scarlet agreed. The friends started to scatter for their classes. Neptune started to turn away until he saw something fall out of Weiss' pocket. He dove to get it and catch her but she was gone.
"Well crap," he muttered. He dove through the door into his next class and saw Ruby do the same just before the bell rang. "Hey this fell out of Weiss' pocket, I tried to catch her but she ran off too quickly."
"Oh, that's her mp3 player, she probably won't notice for a few hours."
"Well can you text her and tell her that I picked it up?"
"Yeah hold on,"
XXX
"I swear I brought it today, that's odd," Weiss mumbled. She preferred to do the busy work of her arts class with her music but she couldn't find her mp3 player.
"Did you have it in your bag?"
"No, because I use it enough I thought I kept it in my pocket." Weiss looked down as her scroll buzzed.
"Hey, you dropped your mp3 player and Neptune picked it up, we're in AP calc now-Red Like Roses."
"Oh, Neptune found it." She smiled a bit and texted Ruby back her instructions.
"You smile a lot when you talk about him," Blake smirked.
"Well he's funny, and charming to say the least. But honestly I'd rather not go through that again."
"Weiss he doesn't even know your name, either he's dense enough to not know, or he's smart enough to not care."
"But I don't want him getting hurt, he's too nice!" Weiss sighed and sat down on her stool in front of her painting. It wasn't too good, but she wasn't an artist. She took the class because she needed it and because Blake was in it. "Plus I don't want to make things awkward between the band, they seem to be really tight knit."
"Ten bucks says they push him to ask you out," Blake said deadpan.
"I wish."
XXX
"Tell him 'keep it; I'll pick it up from you after school'-Mirror, Mirror."
"She says just to keep it; she'll get it after school," Ruby said.
"Okay, guess that works." Neptune plopped down on his chair as the teacher passed out a worksheet.
"Hey can we listen to music while we do this?" one kid asked.
"Sure, why not? Keep it in your headphones though."
"Sweet!" Neptune said excitedly. He pulled out his scroll and saw his battery life rapidly falling. "Crud!" Neptune sighed and started rolling up his headphones until he saw Weiss' mp3 player. "Ruby do you think Weiss would mind if I listened to that? My scroll's dying."
"Nah, go for it. She barely listens to it anyway. She just pumps new music into it."
Neptune shrugged and popped his headphones in to hear…
Metal.
The screaming jarred Neptune visibly and he looked down at the screen as he flipped through the music. Metal, jazz, piano, classic symphonic movements, classic rock, electronic, pretty much every genre except country. He looked through the artists until he saw a couple he was familiar with. The guitar started softly as he worked on his papers. He grew attached to the lyrics.
"I know they say that the space between/Can make it stronger than we've ever seen/They might be right but I disagree/Cause I've never felt stronger than when you're with me."
He kept listening as he flew through the paper enjoying the song.
"I wanna be so far gone in you/So far nothing else will ever do/I wanna be so far gone in you/In you."
The song finally ended but Neptune just rewound it and put it on repeat. The papers flew by and even though Ruby finished hers before he did (like usual) he still finished quicker than normal. He spent the rest of the time writing the lyrics down and the information for the song.
He was going to do something odd.
XXX
"I mean we're all odd, but that's the point," Scarlet said.
"Yeah but you stand out the most, it's just a fact," Sage responded.
"Neptune's got blue hair!"
"But he's the front man, that's kinda the point. Besides it's been like six months since we did that to him, I'm starting to think it's natural now," Sun said in a smirk.
"So what's wrong with me?"
"A lot, but we'll get to that later," Neptune said jogging up. "I know this is last minute but take these." He handed out the papers and the notes in his binder.
"What is this?"
"A pet project."
"So Far Gone? Isn't that TFK?" Scarlet asked.
"Yes, we're learning it."
"Alrighty then, what's all this about?" Sun asked.
"I'm calling in my Band favor."
The guys' eyes went wide and they looked at each other in shock.
"You've been holding onto that for three years!"
"I know, but we're learning this. It's pretty simple but I want to learn it quickly."
"Why?"
"You'll find out," Neptune said as he looked at his watch. "Sorry gotta go, I'll talk to you guys later."
"I feel as if we missed some context," Sage said.
"Well if that bird is the one he's got 'is eye on, then maybe this is fer her."
"Maybe," Sun said as he looked over the papers. "Well Sage you get to pull out your acoustic."
"Boo-yah!"
XXX
"Where is he?" Weiss asked herself, until she saw the blue blur of his hair.
"SorryhereyagoIgottacatchthebussorrytalktoyoulaterkbye!" he shouted as he tossed her the mp3 player and dove onto one of the busses as it started to leave.
"What?"
XXX
Sage sighed as his warm up ended, and he drank from his water bottle happily.
"Hey Sage!" his coach shouted.
"Yeah what's up?"
"You've got the bags for the hour, but I need you in the ring in 30."
"Got it," he shouted back. Sage put his mouth guard back in and set to work on his routines. It seemed far shorter than 30 minutes later, but he was summoned back in the ring by his coach.
"You're in luck, you've got a sparring partner."
"Really who? I thought we were alone on Thursdays," Sage said.
"Well someone changed their schedule it seems."
Sage shrugged and got in the ring just to stare at the blonde woman wearing little but a pair of gym shorts and a sports bra doing much the same thing he was, and continued to stare at her attire.
"Sage? You spar here too?" she asked, jarring him out of his daze.
"Yeah, I do, what are you doing here, Yang?"
"Well I used to do this on Wednesdays but I rescheduled cause of your guys' practice. Now come on, put 'em up!" she said as she put her mouth guard back in.
Sage shrugged and did the same. They'd sparred for about an hour before it was clear that Yang was beating the tar out of him.
"I give, I give, holy crap!" he said as he leaned against the ropes.
"Aw come on, don't tell me you're petering out already!"
"Sorry, I can't take the punishment like you can, I usually only sparred with my brothers."
"You've got brothers?"
"Two older ones, and a younger sister, all of which fall under the 'pain in the butt' category, but they're my family."
"That's kinda how I feel about Ruby," she said.
"But not about Sun?"
"Well he's only been my brother for three weeks, give me some time."
"It's amazing," he said happily.
"What is?"
"How much Sun's changed, even passively, you guys have really helped him."
"Well that's good to hear, what about you?"
"Huh?"
"What's your story, y'all seem to have a story."
"Hmm, well mine's family troubles, but it's not as bad. I'm the normal one, relatively."
"What's up?"
"Well eight out of ten of my immediate family have all served in the military, and my little sister's already decided that's what she wants to do."
"But not you, I suppose?"
"Not that I don't respect it, just that it's not for me. I know what I want to do."
"And what's that?"
"Well the rest of the guys don't seem to want to, but I want to be a musician for a living. I've learned guitar and piano by myself, and I actually write my own stuff, just nothing that the guys would perform."
"Why not?"
"Different styles," he said.
The two sat in the boxing ring talking for a lot longer before their coaches just gave up on them and left.
"Seems we missed the point of the evening," Sage said.
"I don't know, I liked it, I'd like to do this again."
Sage went wide eyed and smiled. "I would too, but howsabout somewhere more romantic than a boxing ring?"
"Is there such a thing?"
"Maybe I'll find a place."
XXX
"Y-you what?" Ruby asked.
"I agreed to go on a date with him! He's really nice!" she said happily.
"You've known him for a day and half!"
"That doesn't stop anybody besides, it's not like I slept with him. We're going to lunch on Saturday."
"Yeah but-."
Sun walked in the room just as the argument died down, still carrying his guitar. "I um-," he paused and dropped his guitar. "I owe you two an apology," he said.
"For what?"
"For sneaking out, I was scared that you guys would be like the other families that adopted me and just try to take that away again."
"Hey I get it," Yang said. "I'd be pissed if someone tried to take away my boxing routine, it's cool Sun. We understand, we even told our dad and all he wanted to know was if you had rides to and from the practices."
"Thank you two, this really helps." Sun said with a smile. "Wait you box Yang?"
"Yep, have for a few years."
"You should go to the Signal gym, that's where Sage practices."
Yang just fell the floor in laughter as Ruby stormed out.
"I feel like I'm missing some context here."
XXX
"-and contextually speaking the evidence doesn't stack with his story, it seems he-." Adam looked at Blake returning from school and clicked the recorder off. "I told you that you weren't to go anywhere except school."
"The bus was late Adam, it had a flat. There was nowhere else," she defended. Adam stared at her for a moment before returning to his desk.
"I've work to do, stay in your room until I'm done."
"Adam?" she asked. He looked back as she stood by her door. "Can I play on your old keyboard?"
Adam said nothing but pointed towards the closet with his head. Blake hurried and grabbed it before rushing back to her room. "Keep it quiet, I need to work."
Blake nodded.
"Do you understand?" he asked.
"I understand, Adam."
"I'll let you know when you can leave."
Blake nodded and closed the door. The cords fit into her computer and her headphones into that. Blake spent the rest of her evening playing old songs she knew, she wasn't as creative as Sun was.
Sun.
She really was a hypocrite, chastising Weiss for hiding away like that. But in the end that's all she ever did, she hid away. She was always good at hiding, whether she liked it or not.
"Hello darkness my old friend," she sang to the empty room. "I've come to talk with you again."